Iraq: The US has named five of the nine Iraqis it expects to form a provisional government next month. They include Mr Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress, the Pentagon's choice to lead the country, writes Ewen MacAskill Baghdad
The leaders of the two Kurdish factions which have been ruling Iraqi Kurdistan since Saddam Hussein's regime was pushed out of the region are included: Mr Masoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic party and Mr Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
Apart from them, the nominees are all exiles, as the four yet to be named are expected to be. There is no one from the burgeoning political parties and religious organisations in Iraq, whose growing strength may upset the American plan.
Insensitive to the accusation that it is railroading through a government fashioned in its own image, Washington did not let the nominees give the news but left the announcement to former US general Jay Garner.
"What you may see is as many as seven, eight, nine leaders working together to provide leadership," he said. The others named are Mr Ayad Allawi of the Iraqi National Accord and Mr Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, whose elder brother heads the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, based in Iran. They have been meeting in a Baghdad hotel since Wednesday under the wing of the US. Although internal groups have been invited to join the discussions, the US and their nominees have kept control of the agenda.
The two Kurdish leaders are the only ones with significant popular support. There is almost no support in Iraq for Mr Chalabi, and only mixed support for Mr Hakim's brother Mr Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who is due to return from exile in Tehran tomorrow.
Although his group is well organised and has its own fighting force, he is handicapped by Iraqi suspicion of Iran.
Meanwhile, rival ethnic groups elected an interim council and mayor to govern Iraq's third-largest city yesterday. Amid loud applause from the assembled delegates, Mosul's chief judge swore in mayor Ghanam al-Basso, a former army general forced to retire in 1993 after he was accused of conspiring against the regime.
The UN nuclear watchdog agency said yesterday it had asked the US to let it send a mission to Iraq to investigate reports of widespread looting at nuclear facilities.
In Moscow, visiting US Undersecretary of State, Mr John Bolton, said Washington saw no immediate role for the UN in its quest for weapons of mass destruction. However, he did not specifically mention the latest IAEA request to inspect nuclear facilities.